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Up the airy mountain,
Down the rushing glen,
We dare not go a hunting,
For fear of little men.
You see, nobody ever goes in...
And nobody ever comes out.
For some reason those words terrified me as a kid, spoken by a meager tinker outside the gates of the Wonka factory. It's a minor moment in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, but one that sets the tone for the movie: nobody knows what goes on inside the mysterious factory, not the characters or the audience. So as the movie takes both inside the gates, it's an adventure to be anticipated and enjoyed. The movie, adapted from the book Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, tells the story of a world where the favored candy bars are made by Willy Wonka, "The Candy Man". Wonka himself has not been seen in years, having locked his factory up tight to keep his secrets from being stolen by competitors. Suddenly a contest is announced: five golden tickets are hidden within five candy bars, each of which will allow one child and their parent on a tour of the factory. The world goes crazy trying to find the tickets, and eventually the five slots are filled by a variety of rude little children and our hero, the poor little boy Charlie Buckett. As the five children receive their tour around Wonka's "World of Pure Imagination" they begin to disappear, undone by their own vices.
The true star of Willy Wonka, in just about every use of the word imaginable, is Gene Wilder. The man brings a mischievous, yet kindhearted, spirit to the character of Willy Wonka, exactly as I pictured Wonka to be like when I first read the novel. Wilder spouts off zaniness and wisdom in the same tone, always with a sparkle of knowledge in his eye. There's just something in Wilder's demeanor to comfort the audience that, no matter how odd the situation may be, Wonka is not only fully in charge of things, but fully aware of what was going to happen ahead of time. All of the characters and the audience are just pawns in Wonka's world, and while that may not be much comfort for all of the characters, it is a lot of fun for those watching the movie.
Despite recent criticism that the movie doesn't hold completely true to the novel, Willy Wonka is a classic movie. It's the type of film that transcends time to provide entertainment for generation after generation. I was entertained by it as a kid, and I fully expect I'll share it with my children. The fun of the movie, as well as the morals it attempts to promote are so core to our society that it will never lose its status as a brilliant and classic film. That said, it is very dated in places. As the characters travel through a tunnel that presents them with a variety of odd images one of the characters asks "Is this a freak out?" At another time a character announces something as "fab". Due to its budget constraints, Wonka's world is not as immersive as one would hope it to be, although it's still pretty impressive for the time the movie was filmed. All this means is that while it is a classic, it is, unfortunately, not perfect. But the same will be said of a lot of modern movies twenty years from now.
While I certainly can see the opportunity to improve some of the lesser elements of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, I have to question anyone's logic at making a completely new version of the story (Tim Burton insists his film is not a "remake" of this movie). Gene Wilder's take on Wonka is flawless, a near impossible character to improve on. Kids are kids, whether they are kids of today or kids of the 1960s. Rather than try to remake this classic picture, Warner Brothers should just clean up this film and put it out in theaters again. I guarantee it would draw an audience ready for another trip into a world of pure imagination. Wonka has been through a couple of incarnations on DVD. First, as you might expect, a bare bones edition. Next came an edition with some decent bonus features although it was only released in full screen. Finally after a petition from fans of DVD and Wonka, an anamorphic widescreen edition hit shelves. You've got to give Warner Brothers some credit - it may have taken them a few tries, but they finally got it right.
The DVD is very kid-friendly, almost too much I might say. "I've Got a Golden Ticket" plays during the menu as Wonka twirls his cane and Oompa Loompas peek out from behind the menu options. Once something is selected the doors to the Great Glass Elevator close and take you to whatever you choose. That would all be fine and good, but there is one section it gets too kid friendly: the cast list, which doesn't give you any information about the cast, but rather a brief summary of each character including strengths, weaknesses, and their outlook on life. While I can appreciate that, I wanted to know what else Peter Ostrum (Charlie Buckett) had been in. There are also four songs from the movie set up as "sing alongs" for the younger viewers of the disc.
The film contains a commentary made up of the five actors who played the children, most of which aren't actors anymore. At the time it was recorded, all five had not been in the same room since the movie had been filmed, so it's very interesting to hear them catch up and reminisce about filming the movie. Through the commentary we learn who stole what props, how the older actors treated the younger ones, and who had a crush on who. It's a very neat look back at the making of a movie by a group who would have been very innocent about making movies.
A half hour retrospective documentary gives a brief look at how and why the movie was made - originally as a promotional tool for Quaker Oats who wanted to make a new candy bar. This is the only place Wilder joins in on looking back at the film as he reminisces about his take on Wonka, and his insistence on the character's first appearance as a crippled man who eventually somersaults to reveal... well, to reveal nothing is what it seems with anything the Wonka name is attached to. Wilder is obviously very emotionally attached to the character, even after all of these years. This is also where we finally get to hear what has happened to those child actors of the movie - what they've done and where they are now.
Also included on the disc is a original vintage featurette about the movie, the theatrical trailer (which shows how far the evolution of trailer making has come), and a photo gallery. It's a disc chock-full of material, although I can't help wishing for one more thing: a commentary track by people who would have been a little more aware of how movies were made in those days. Perhaps Wilder could have shared some stories with the audience, or the producers given us more information then in the short retrospective. Yes, it's greedy to want more when the disc is already so full, but hey, this is about candy. I'm okay with being a bit greedy about that.
Most Popular
By Mike Reyes
By Mike Reyes
By Mike Reyes
By Nick Venable
By Mike Reyes


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Franklin Miller has designed the pre-engineered DELUMPER BAGSTATION bag dump system for unloading, de-agglomerating and freshening of lumpy bagged solids, while efficiently introducing them into a production process. Moreover, this convenient system delivers:
- A built-in DELUMPER® processor to reduce agglomerates and lumps, and facilitate uniform product flow while the bags are being emptied.
- The ability to ease the convenient manual opening of small- to medium-sized bags without creating a dusty environment.
- A built-in dust filter system that draws air through the unit grate and into the enclosed filter chamber.
- A programmed air burst cycle that periodically self-cleans filter media.
- The inclusion of a grating platform for bags, a discharge hopper, a DELUMPER processor and a control system.
- Durable stainless steel construction.
- Several optional configurations to fit specific applications, including a compact model with low headroom.

subset: commoncrawl


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Google will buy London-based artificial intelligence company DeepMind. The Information reports that the acquisition price was more than $500 million, and that Facebook was also in talks to buy the startup late last year. DeepMind confirmed the acquisition to us, but couldn't disclose deal terms.
The acquisition was originally confirmed by Google to Re/code.
Google's hiring of DeepMind will help it compete against other major tech companies as they all try to gain business advantages by focusing on deep learning. For example, Facebook recently hired NYU professor Yann LeCunn to lead its new artificial intelligence lab, IBM's Watson supercomputer is now working on deep learning, and Yahoo recently acquired photo analysis startup LookFlow to lead its new deep learning group.
DeepMind was founded by neuroscientist Demis Hassabis, a former child prodigy in chess, Shane Legg, and Mustafa Suleyman. Skype and Kazaa developer Jaan Tallin is an investor.
This is the latest move by Google to fill out its roster of artificial intelligence experts and, according to Re/code, the acquisition was reportedly led by Google CEO Larry Page. If all three of DeepMind's founders work for Google, they will join inventor, entrepreneur, author, and futurist Ray Kurzweil, who was hired in 2012 as a director of engineering focused on machine learning and language processing.
Kurzweil has said that he wants to build a search engine so advanced that it could act like a "cybernetic friend."
After it acquired Nest earlier this month, critics voiced concerns about how much customer data the smart device maker would share with Google. The company's purchase of Boston Dynamics last month also sparked confusion about why a search company needs a robotics maker.
Google looks like it is better prepared to allay user concerns over its latest acquisition. According to The Information's sources, Google has agreed to establish an ethics board to ensure DeepMind's artificial intelligence technology isn't abused.
But the company may also have to clarify what exactly DeepMind's AI tech does. The company's site currently just has a landing page, with a relatively vague description that says DeepMind is "a cutting edge artificial intelligence company" to build general-purpose learning algorithms for simulations, e-commerce, and games. As of December, the startup had about 75 employees, says The Information.
Re/code reports that Founders Fund and Horizons Ventures are both major investors in the startup. DeepMind was started about three years ago, according to LinkedIn profiles.
In 2012, Carnegie Mellon professor Larry Wasserman wrote that the "startup is trying to build a system that thinks. This was the original dream of AI. As Shane [Legg] explained to me, there has been huge progress in both neuroscience and ML and their goal is to bring these things together. I thought it sounded crazy until he told me the list of famous billionaires who have invested in the company."


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On checked exceptions and proof obligations
Checked exceptions are a much vilified feature of Java, despite theoretical reasons why it should be a really good idea. The tension is between these two lines of reasoning:
Well-written programs handle all possible edge-cases, working around them when possible and gracefully dying if not. It's hard to keep track of all possible exceptions, so we should have the compiler help us out by letting us know when there is an edge-case that we've forgotten to handle. Thus, checked exceptions offer a mechanism of ensuring we've handled all of the edge-cases.
Frequently checked exceptions are for error conditions that we cannot reasonably recover from close to the error site. Passing the checked exception through all of the intervening code requires each layer to know about all of its exceptions. The psychological design of checked exceptions encourages irresponsible swallowing of exceptions by developers. Checked exceptions don't scale for large amounts of code.
In this post, I suggest another method for managing checked exceptions: prove that the code cannot throw such an exception.
"Prove that the code cannot throw an exception?" you might say. "Impossible! After all, most checked exceptions come from the outside world, and surely we can't say anything about what will happen. A demon could just always pick the worst possible scenario and feed it into our code."
My first answer to the skeptic would be that there do indeed exist examples of checked exceptions that happen completely deterministically, and could be shown to be guaranteed not to be thrown. For example, consider this code in the Java reflection API:
Object o, Field f; // defined elsewhere f.setAccessible(true); f.get(o);
The last invocation could throw a checked exception IllegalAccessException, but assuming that the setAccessible call did not fail (which it could, under a variety of conditions), this exception cannot happen! So, in fact, even if it did throw an IllegalAccessException, it has violated our programmer's expectation of what the API should do and a nice fat runtime error will let us notice what's going on. The call to setAccessible discharges the proof obligation for the IllegalAccessException case.
But this may just be an edge case in a world of overwhelmingly IO-based checked exceptions. So my second answer to the skeptic is that when we program code that interacts with the outside world, we often don't assume that a demon is going to feed us the worst possible input data. (Maybe we should!) We have our own internal model of how the interactions might work, and if writing something that's quick and dirty, it may be convenient to assume that the interaction will proceed in such and such a manner. So once we've written all the validation code to ensure that this is indeed the case (throwing a runtime exception akin to a failed assert if it's not), we once again can assume static knowledge that can discharge our proof obligations. Yes, in a way it's a cop out, because we haven't proved anything, just told the compiler, "I know what I'm doing", but the critical extra is that once we've established our assumptions, we can prove things with them, and only need to check at runtime what we assumed.
Of course, Java is not going to get dependent types any time soon, so this is all a rather theoretical discussion. But checked exceptions, like types, are a form of formal methods, and even if you don't write your application in a dependently typed language, the field can still give useful insights about the underlying structure of your application.
The correspondence between checked exceptions and proofs came to me while listening to Conor McBride's lecture on the Outrageous Arrows of Fortune. I hope to do a write up of this talk soon; it clarified some issues about session types that I had been thinking about.
I consulted the following articles when characterizing existing views of Java checked exceptions.


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We ask a lot of our teachers and, as a nation, we're about to ask a lot more. With the adoption of the Common Core State Standards in English/language arts and math in almost every state, we are raising the bar on what students must master to be prepared in an increasingly competitive world. Gone are the days when states and districts could lower expectations, hide poor results, or create confusion about what students are capable of achieving.
But the real challenge is for teachers, not policymakers: The new standards emphasize teaching fewer topics, but in greater depth, and focusing more on hands-on learning and dynamic student projects than traditional lectures. If students are to be successful, teachers must also encourage innovative assignments that require students to show their understanding, use their knowledge and skills to solve problems, create written and multimedia presentations, and complete real-world tasks.
The common core means that teachers must shift their practice and teach more advanced materials to their students in more successful ways. How can we accomplish such a substantial change in classroom instruction in thousands of schools and tens of thousands of classrooms, and with millions of students with differing abilities, interests, and life goals? We believe the answer lies in two key strategies: greater teacher collaboration and better instructional materials in the classroom.
In a 2012 Scholastic Inc. survey of teachers, supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, teachers indicated they need more professional support and development to implement these standards. In our experience, the best professional development comes from those already in our schools. When engaging in inquiry or lesson study, teachers draw on their shared trust, expertise, and experiences to improve instruction. And when this collaboration focuses on student work, it builds educators' capacity to address students' academic needs immediately.
Yet one of the tragic hallmarks of American education is teacher isolation. Too often, teachers do not have sufficient opportunities to work together to examine work and structure interventions within their classrooms. As the new standards are implemented, we must ensure that teachers are not left alone to figure out how best to teach to them. The standards are an opportunity for greater collaboration, fresher thinking, and a rearticulation of shared goals for teachers and students. By collaborating with each other and with instructional specialists through cycles of examining student work, creating hypotheses about how to implement common-core-aligned lessons, implementing them, and making adjustments in their practice in real time, teachers can find the best ways to help their students reach these higher expectations while still maintaining individual styles and flexibility.
We must ensure that teachers are not left alone to figure out how best to teach to [the standards]."
But this commitment to deep collaboration also requires new types of materials aligned to the standards, with a focus on real-time assessment and its translation into classroom practice. Two examples of this kind of collaboration are the Literacy Design Collaborative (LDC) and the Mathematics Design Collaborative (MDC), through which groups of traditional public school and public charter school teachers, curriculum experts, and other educators are working together to create high-quality, useful lessons and research-based instructional tools incorporating the common-core standards. In addition to developing a free, online library of new lessons and units, these efforts, funded by the Gates Foundation, are pioneering new pathways for how educators can work together to shift teacher practice.
LDC and MDC teams work together to integrate common-core skills into classroom materials and to create performance tasks—structured assignments that provide teachers with rich information on how students understand key concepts.
For example, the common-core standards recognize that, to succeed in college, students need to understand and write about nonfiction texts. But most high school science and social studies teachers, and even some English teachers, have little training in teaching reading and writing. In New York City, the LDC team, guided by instructional experts from New Visions for Public Schools, a New York City-based nonprofit organization, is helping teachers embed standards-based literacy skills into their classrooms.
These skills include locating textual evidence, evaluating arguments, interpreting meaning, and synthesizing information from different sources. Teams use preliminary templates aligned with the standards to develop their own curriculum units that scaffold the writing process and enable teachers to assess student progress. They are producing classroom-tested, common-core-aligned modules that other teachers can adopt or adapt.
For example, one module—developed by two teachers at the High School for Service and Learning at Erasmus in Brooklyn—provides a template for teaching argumentative writing.
For a 10th grade global history class, the teachers designed a writing module that prompts students to argue whether the achievements of the British industrial revolution were worth the costs. The teachers compiled a list of relevant sources at different reading levels and created strategies for students' reading, note-taking, summarizing, and analyzing. They broke the writing process down into a series of coordinated tasks and created worksheets that help students develop a claim, produce an outline and first draft, peer-edit a piece, and incorporate revisions into a final draft. Other teachers can draw on this example as they implement the common core.
Adopting the common core extends the teacher's role as coach, carefully designing activities to build specific skills, providing constructive feedback, and continually modifying lessons based on student understanding. Through professional development, teachers learn how to assess and give meaningful, consistent feedback; to share what works with their peers; and adjust lessons appropriately. Our best schools have always done this work, but the LDC and MDC members capture and scale it.
There is a buzz of enthusiasm in these pilot projects, as teachers embrace the work. Some say working with the collaboratives has been the best professional-development experience of their careers. Teachers tell us that they are covering fewer topics more deeply, and that their students gain a greater understanding of the content. Teachers also say they have found that some of the extra time spent on this approach in the first few modules is recouped later in the year because students can apply the skills learned to future lessons.
It's too early to measure the program's effects, but we're encouraged by the anecdotal evidence to date. One principal noted improved pass rates on a state global-studies regents' exam after using the literacy modules for a year. In an informal survey of 30 New Visions teachers in June, all but five or six respondents (including science and social studies teachers) found the literacy modules very helpful. The remainder said the materials were somewhat helpful. The interesting lessons and student-centered instruction also turned many disengaged students into active learners, and teachers reported seeing students across the board develop college-ready skills. Some already are adapting these methods and performance tasks to the rest of their curriculum.
Providing teachers with real training and templates, not scripts and worksheets, and meaningful opportunities to work together to implement strategies that will improve student learning, are critical components of any strategy to implement the common core. We will fail if we do not do both. These strategies implicitly allow teachers to take ownership of how to best implement the common core in their classrooms and to explore the teaching and learning possibilities opened up by the new standards. But more importantly, they ensure that these standards are constantly re-engineered against the real needs of students. That is as it should be.


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Tips for choosing your faucets
We often use the basin and we do not need hot water. In the new generation of Cold Start faucets the front opening is reserved to cold water, thus avoiding the unintentional operation of the boiler, without wasting energy or emitting polluting gases into the atmosphere.
We do not need the entire water flow when washing our hands or brushing our teeth. For this reason, the flow limiters integrated in Roca faucets reduce the volume of water without decreasing the level of comfort.
Temperature in a matter of seconds
Only three seconds and you will have the perfect temperature. Roca thermostatic faucets have two controls, one to determine the temperature and another one to regulate the flow, delivering water instantly without exceeding 38º by default.
Total safety
Forget accidents. Roca thermostatic faucets feature the Safe Touch technology that avoids the overheating of bodies. You will therefore be assured that no one will get burned when touching the metal.
Integrated design
If you commit to innovative interior design or you simply wish to renovate your bathroom, you might choose built-in faucets. Thanks to the RocaBox, the body of the faucets remains concealed behind the wall, reducing the space occupied by the faucets and providing an elegant and minimalistic design.


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Fender's Tweed Deluxe amplifier is one of the most widely copied and emulated designs in the world. This is partly because it's relatively simple and therefore a good choice for first-time kit builders, but also because a good Deluxe sounds fantastic.
So how do you make a good Deluxe sound even better? Well, one person who might have figured this out is Jesse Hoff, otherwise known as Lazy J Projects. Hailing from South Carolina but now living in the UK, Jesse's skills are already in high demand and he's currently the resident amp doctor at one of the country's top guitar stores.
The Model 20 is Lazy J's current entry-level design and, while it looks like a regular Tweed Deluxe, this amp has a few secrets hidden behind the control panel.
From the front at least, the Model 20 is a well-made and nicely presented copy of an early fifties Tweed Deluxe amplifier. The cabinet is handmade from finger-jointed pine - just like the originals - and covered in thick tweed, brushed with a dark brown lacquer.
The Model 20's chassis is a solid steel affair with a chrome panel and white lettering for the controls. Spinal Tap fans should note that true Tweed amps go all the way up to 12 - yep, one more than even 11.
Beefier valves
Around the back, some of the things that make the Model 20 special are rather more obvious. Instead of 6V6 output valves, there's a pair of beefier 6L6s.
The loudspeaker is Celestion's Alnico Blue - one of just a few loudspeakers that Celestion still produces in the UK and an altogether different animal to the Jensens with which Tweed amps are typically kitted out.
There's also something else Tweed amps normally don't include - an Accutronics spring reverb. This optional extra is powered by a separate module mounted on the side-wall of the cabinet, with two more 12AX7 valves and controls for reverb level and tone.
The Model 20's electronics are strictly old school, with not a trace of silicon anywhere inside the chassis. All the small components are mounted on an eyelet board, which is a piece of insulating material with small brass rivets pressed into it at strategic positions.
Resistors and capacitors are soldered in to the appropriate rivets with wires leading to the valve sockets, transformers and front and rear panel connections. This is the traditional American way of building a guitar amplifier and Hoff's choice and positioning of components suggests that he knows all about it.
There's a mixture of old and new - modern carbon film resistors sit alongside Sprague Atom filter caps - and everything's connected with cloth-covered hook-up wire, which ensures the Model 20 will smell as vintage as it looks.
The standard of wiring and soldering is as good as the best we've seen and the overall impression is one of solid reliability that'll take the abuse of professional touring and keep on working regardless.
The Model 20's controls are as easy to use as anyone could want, but in this modern age it's perhaps worth explaining how they work. There are two channels labelled Bright and Normal and each has two input jacks.
There is, however, no footswitch. Both channels are on all the time. You plug into either channel and alter the channel volume and master tone controls to suit.
A popular trick to gain a little more drive and tonal flexibility with this kind of layout is to use a short patch lead to 'jumper' the channels together. This means you can mix both channels to taste, effectively turning the volume controls into tone controls as well.
It works best on amps where the individual channels are voiced to be very different. On the Model 20 there isn't as much variety - the Bright channel is brighter, the Normal channel darker - so jumpering is still possible, but not essential.
"It's worth mentioning that even without jumpering, the volume controls are interactive," Jesse tells us. "So when you're plugged in to the Bright channel, the Normal channel volume has a subtle effect on the response of the amp."
"Turning it up to about halfway will loosen up the lower mids, turning it up further to about 10 tightens the bottom-end up, beyond that the sound becomes compressed and choked."
While this is subtle, it's definitely audible and adds to the amp's character.
Another small but important change is the function attached to the ground switch. Thankfully the Model 20 is properly grounded, so the switch can be used for several optional functions, including a preamp voltage boost. "The cool thing about boosting the preamp voltages, is that it alters the way the amp responds and distorts without affecting the power tubes," says Jesse.
"You can have a standby switch in there instead, although the valve rectifier makes that less of a necessity. Or if you want, it can be used for pentode/triode switching, which drops the output quite a bit. As the amp is only around 20 watts to start off with, making it even quieter isn't so popular, but I've had requests for it.
"I just added another option that will make pentode/triode switching redundant - by replacing the ground switch with a pot, I can implement a circuit that will allow the user to sweep from full power down to about five watts, while the amp retains its character very nicely.
"I have several orders for that particular option at the moment. Another small change is the addition of a fan to help keep the power transformer cool. It's practically noiseless."
Plugged in and warmed up, the Model 20 not only nails that fat vintage Tweed tonality, but takes it on to a new level of sophistication. At lower volumes, the Lazy J's clean sounds are among the best we've ever heard, with a natural compression as the amp squeezes every last drop of sustain from each note.
Hit a big open-string chord such as a Major 9 and the Model 20 rewards you with complex, bell-like harmonics and an almost three-dimensional interplay between intervals.
As you turn it up gradually, this compression effect becomes more accentuated as the amp goes into cut-off, delivering a thick, fluid sustain with an edgy bite that favours bright PAF-style pickups or single-coils.
"That tone is mainly coming from the power tubes and the loudspeaker, and coloured by the pine cabinet, which I make myself. It resonates much more than a plywood or chipboard box," says Jesse.
"I prefer the sound and reliability of the 6L6 and GZ34 combination over the 6V6 and 5Y3. It adds a little more power and keeps the bottom-end tighter, making the amp more useful for live work. As for the loudspeaker, for me the Celestion Blue is the best there is. It's expensive, but you can't get that tone without it."
With controls for level and tone, the reverb module makes it easy to get all kinds of effects, from crashy bright Dick Dale surf, to the airy warm ambience favoured by modern fusion players such as Robben Ford or Larry Carlton.
Unlike the originals, The Lazy J's noise performance is excellent, although like many similar amps, it's dependent on high quality valves for the lowest noise levels.
Tonal reward
Not every guitar player is going to click with an amp like this immediately. The Model 20 demands you put a lot into every note, but if you do you'll be rewarded with staggering tone that ranks up there with some of the best small boutique amps we've ever plugged into.
With amps like this, there's often a fine dividing line between hand-made and home-made with respect to quality, and the Model 20 is definitely in the former category in terms of build and attention to detail.
Okay, it's not cheap, but factor in the loudspeaker accounting for nearly £200 of the asking price on its own, and all of a sudden the Lazy J begins to look like excellent value for money.
The fact that it's also made right here in the UK is a bonus that can't be ignored either. Hoff is already coping with a rapidly expanding waiting list - Nine Below Zero recently took delivery of a Model 20 and this review sample has already been sold too - so if the Lazy J amp sounds like your idea of tone heaven, our advice is to get your deposit in quickly.


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Outlaw Treasure – The Dalton Gang Loot
The famous Dalton Gang made history in 1892 when they attempted to rob two banks at the same time in Coffeyville, Kansas. The result was the death of four of the outlaws and four citizens, and a prison term for the only survivor, Emmett Dalton.
Less well known is the fortune in gold and silver coins allegedly buried by the outlaws on the evening before the Coffeyville attempt. The cache was estimated to be worth between $9,000 and $20,000 in 1892 values.
Before their Coffeyville robbery, the Dalton Gang held up a Missouri-Kansas-Texas train near Wagoner, Oklahoma, and another near Adair. From these robberies, they netted $10,000. A few weeks later, they walked into an El Reno, Oklahoma, bank and took $17,000.
Following these robberies, the gang members purchased new saddles and clothes. The remaining loot was carried in their saddlebags as they made their way toward Coffeyville.
On the evening of October 5, the gang arrived at Onion Creek where it joins with the Verdigris River near the Kansas-Oklahoma border. There, they set up camp. Desiring to travel as unencumbered as possible, they unloaded all of the goods from their horses. The gold and silver coins were placed in a shallow hole they dug adjacent to their campfire.
At dawn the following morning, the outlaws breakfasted, checked their firearms and ammunition, and saddled their mounts. Before leaving, Emmett told the gang members that if they became separated, they were to rendezvous at this site, where they would retrieve the coins and escape deeper into Oklahoma.
The robbery attempt was a disaster and spelled the end of the gang. All were killed, save for Emmett. He served only 15 years in prison when he was pardoned in 1907. Lawmen believed that when freed, Emmett would lead them to the buried cache. They followed him for weeks, but he stayed away from Onion Creek. He once told an interviewer that he believed the coin cache was tainted and he wanted no more to do with it.
The precise location of the Onion Creek campsite has been debated for years, but recently discovered information has narrowed the area of search. On the morning the Dalton Gang departed for Coffeyville, Mary Brown, the young daughter of a nearby rancher, was riding her horse when she heard voices near Onion Creek. Reining up her mount, she listened and heard the sounds of men eating and saddling horses. Moments later, Brown saw five horsemen riding out from under a small wooden bridge that spanned the creek and making their way toward Coffeyville.
Years later, when Brown was an adult, she heard the story of the gold and silver coins buried at the Onion Creek campsite and was determined to find them. During the time that passed since the Coffeyville Raid, however, the old bridge had been torn down, portions of the creek had changed course and the road had been relocated. Though she searched for a full day, Brown was unable to find the location where the Daltons had camped so many years earlier.
As far as anyone knows, the treasure is still there.
Belle Starr's Lost Iron Door Cache
Belle Starr was arguably the American West's most famous female outlaw. She was known to deal in stolen horses, and she provided sanctuary in her eastern Oklahoma home to Frank and Jesse James, the Younger Gang and other notorious banditti. Some believed that she helped plan crimes and aided her accomplices in hiding and spending money taken in bank and train robberies.
A tale that has surfaced over the years involves gang members Starr allegedly knew. They stopped a freight train bound for the Denver Mint during the mid-1880s. The train was transporting a cargo of gold ingots destined to be turned into coin.
Though the robbery went as planned, the gang feared immediate pursuit from federal agents. They decided to hide the gold in a cave in Oklahoma's Wichita Mountains. Before riding away with the loot, gang members removed one of the iron doors from a railroad car and, using ropes, dragged the door along behind them as they made their escape on horseback.
When they arrived at the cave, the bandits stacked the gold against one wall. The iron door was placed over the entrance, wedged into position, and covered over with rock and brush. Before leaving the area, one of the outlaws hammered a railroad spike into an oak tree located 100 yards from the cave.
A short time after the robbery, railroad detectives learned of the possibility that the gold had been hidden in the Wichita Mountains. Though they hunted for weeks, they were never able to find it.
During a subsequent train robbery attempt a few months later, all of the members of the gang were killed. In 1889, Starr was murdered, a crime that has never been solved. With her death, no one remained alive who knew the exact location of what has come to be called the "Lost Iron Door Cache."
During the first decade of the 1900s, a rancher and his young son rode into a canyon in the Wichita Mountains near Elk Mountain. Their attention was captured by the reflection of the sun from an object located on the eastern slope. On investigating, they encountered a large, rusted iron door set into a recessed portion of the canyon wall. The son wanted to see what was on the other side of the door, but the father reminded him they had to reach their destination before nightfall. Later, the father learned the story of the Iron Door Cache. The two returned to the region, but were unsuccessful in relocating the site.
During the ensuing years, a number of ranchers, hunters and hikers have reported spotting the iron door against one wall of a remote canyon in the Wichita Mountains. On learning the story of the gold, they attempted to return to the location, but could never find it.
While traveling through a remote canyon in the Wichitas in the 1950s, a rancher decided to pause and take shade under a large oak tree. He hung his hat on a railroad spike hammered into the trunk. Familiar with the story of the gold cache and the spike, he made plans to return to the canyon and search for the treasure, but was never able to relocate the site. Later, someone cut down the oak tree for firewood.
The latest sighting of the door was in 1996. A middle-aged man making his way on foot from the small town of Cooperton to Lawton, in search of work, took a shortcut through the Wichita Mountains and spotted the iron door. Three weeks after arriving in Lawton, he learned the story of Starr's Iron Door Cache. He purchased a few tools and set out to recover the gold. On the way, he suffered a heart attack and died.
Bill Doolin's Gold
In spite of lore that claims Bill Doolin netted over $175,000 in robberies in Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas over the two-year period preceding his death, the outlaw lived frugally in a wood frame shack near Burden, Kansas.
In between robberies, Doolin purchased a small plot of land and a shack near Burden, 40 miles southeast of Wichita. To this place he retreated with his loot, and it was here that he buried most of it. He never told anyone about his new residence, preferring to keep it secret.
In December 1895, Doolin traveled to Eureka Springs, Arkansas. An arthritis sufferer, he often bathed in the hot springs to soothe his aches. One afternoon he was arrested by Deputy Marshal Bill Tilghman while soaking in a hot mineral bath. He was placed in the jail in Guthrie, Oklahoma, to await trial for bank robbery. Certain that he would be convicted, Doolin escaped and fled to Burden. He began making plans to move his wife and child to this location.
For days following Doolin's escape, the Oklahoma countryside was searched for some trace of him, to no avail. One lawman, Heck Thomas, got a tip that Doolin was planning on visiting his wife and son. He learned that Doolin's family was living in Lawton. Thomas rode to Lawton and, from hiding, watched the house where Mrs. Doolin was living.
Thomas and a posse were hiding out near the house when Doolin came walking up, leading the horse and buggy. The outlaw spotted the lawman and reached for a rifle under the wagon seat, firing twice. Thomas shot him dead.
Doolin's friends were aware that he buried his share of the robbery loot, but never knew where. Not until 20 years after the outlaw's death did anyone discover his secret residence in Burden. By that time, the old shack had tumbled down, and the land was covered in weeds and brush.
Though many have searched the area for Doolin's cache of gold and silver coins, it remains undiscovered.
Sam Bass Treasure
Following a train robbery outside of Big Springs, Nebraska, Sam Bass and other outlaws got away with 3,000 twenty-dollar gold pieces, along with jewelry and money taken from the passengers. After dividing the loot, the outlaws split up. Bass went to his hideout at Cove Hollow near Denton, Texas. Some believe he buried his booty at Cove Hollow, although others believe he just as easily could have spent the money. He soon formed a gang, robbed more stages and added to his caches.
Bass made plans to rob the Williamson County Bank in Round Rock, Texas. When the outlaws stopped at the store first to buy some tobacco, a couple of local lawmen noticed they were armed and started to talk to them. They didn't recognize Bass. The outlaws opened fire on them, and a gunfight ensued. Badly wounded, Bass escaped.
Texas Rangers caught up with him in a nearby pasture. The outlaw died more than a day later, and with his death went the knowledge of the location of his treasure caches at Cove Hollow.
Henry Plummer's Lost Gold
In a short span of time, the Henry Plummer gang amassed an impressive fortune in gold coins, ingots and nuggets from robbing stagecoaches, freight wagons, miners and travelers throughout Washington and Montana…at least, according to legend, since no evidence supports the claim. Some historians have made the argument that Plummer was not an outlaw, nor did he lead an organized gang. But for those who believe that Plummer was a gang leader and who also believe in the legend of his treasure, Plummer's share has been estimated to exceed $200,000.
For a time, Plummer (and maybe his gang) lived near Sun River, 20 miles from Great Falls, Montana. Plummer apparently buried his portion of the gold near a small creek located 200 yards from the house. He never revealed the location.
On January 10, 1864, vigilantes caught up with Plummer and hanged him. In 1875, a young boy was digging in the soft ground near a stream at Sun River and found one of Plummer's bags of coins. He returned to the area with his father, but was unable to relocate the spot. Plummer's buried treasure, at its estimated value, would be worth several million dollars today.
Cy Skinner's Lost Loot
Cy Skinner was among those named as a member of Henry Plummer's gang. After Plummer was killed, Skinner loaded up the gold ingots and coins he had accumulated in the same robberies—$200,000 worth—and fled to Hell's Gate (now Missoula), Montana. After reaching his destination, Skinner carried the gold to one of several small islands in the middle of the Clark Fork. Weeks later, a mob of men stormed Skinner's cabin, hauled him outside and hanged him.
During the 1930s, a man named Taichert found a portion of Skinner's gold on one of the islands. When he returned the next day to search for the rest of it, heavy rains had caused the river to rise, barring access to the island. By the time the flow receded, the islands had been altered in size and shape. Taichert was never able to find the precise spot where he had found the gold. Skinner's gold still rests beneath a foot or two of river deposit on one of the small islands.
Outlaw Treasure
Mexican Payroll Loot Austin, Texas
A $3 million treasure, allegedly from a Mexican payroll in 1836 stolen by the paymaster and accomplices, the loot could be buried near Shoal Creek in Texas. After burying the loot and, in turn, killing members of the party, the remaining outlaw returned to Mexico. His map to the treasure shows it was buried five feet underground, close to an oak tree with two eagle wings carved on it.
Eight men dug 40 feet of tunnel for eight months along Shoal Creek, saying they were constructing a new bridge or a large house. On April 13, 1927, according to The Rising Star Record, the workers took off with the loot:
"A box was lifted from the square cut chamber between the rocks, for the next day the workmen were gone and the blasting has ceased. Curious throngs soon found the dark tunnel and with lights discovered traces of the large wooden box that had laid beneath the dirt for more than 60 years."
Butch Cassidy and his Wild Bunch hid out in Brown's Hole, Colorado, to escape from lawmen. Many believe the gang's stolen loot was tucked away here, in an outlaw paradise, for safekeeping, but then abandoned and forgotten.
Along what is known as "Outlaw Trail," Brown's Hole was also the perfect place to hide rustled cattle and horses.
Josie Bassett, an alleged girlfriend of Cassidy's, lived on the Bassett Ranch at Brown's Park. Cassidy had worked there as a ranch hand. Graves along the river, Josie's cabin and remnants of Doc Parson's cabin, where Cassidy lived for a while, still stand today.
Lost Opata Mine South of Tucson, Arizona
About 45 miles south of Tucson, Arizona, rises what remains of Tumacacori Mission, now a national park. The 18th-century church was built by Spaniards hoping to convert the pagan Opata and Papago Indians. The missionaries hired the Indians to work in their nearby silver mines and store the yield in a giant room.
The Opata kidnapped a woman they believed was the Virgin Mary and wanted her to marry their chief. She refused, so the people sacrificed her to their gods by tying her to the silver, rubbing poison into cuts in her hands, and dancing and singing around her.
The missionaries, so dismayed by the pagan violation of their Christian teachings, had the entrance closed off, presumably sealing in the woman's skeletal remains—and all of the silver—still waiting to be found.
Lost Dutchman Mine Apache Junction, Arizona
Rich in gold, but—some believe—cursed, the fabled Lost Dutchman gold mine generates endless stories. The treasure hunters who mysteriously go missing while looking for the gold fuel the 120-plus-year legend. Today, some wonder if the Superstition Mountains really harbor the gold or if the stories have piled upon stories to bury the truth.
Sometime after 1868, a German (not Dutch) miner named Jacob Waltz found the Peralta family mine and worked it with an associate, Jacob Weiser. Legend has it that they hid some of the gold near Weaver's Needle, a local landmark. Details after that are unclear, according to Lost Dutchman State Park information. Either Waltz killed Weiser or Apaches killed him, leaving Waltz as the only person who knew the whereabouts of the mine.
His neighbor in Phoenix, Arizona, who took care of him before his death in 1891, and countless others have searched unsuccessfully for the gold.
Hidden Treasure
Ruggles Brothers Gold Redding, California
In 1892, the charming, young Ruggles brothers held up the stagecoach to Weaverville, California, just west of Redding, making off with the strongbox loaded with gold. Buck Montgomery, of the Hayfork Montgomery clan, was the armed escort on the stage. He shot at Charles Ruggles, who had ordered the driver to halt.
John Ruggles fired back, killing Montgomery. Thinking his brother was dead, he cached the loot somewhere nearby. Charles was alive, but some of the loot was never found. Eventually, local vigilantes lynched the Ruggles.
Jesse James's Hidden Treasure Wichita Mountains, Oklahoma
Legend says the James Gang, in 1876, buried stolen treasure in a deep ravine east of Cache Creek in Oklahoma. Jesse James made two signs pointing to the gold: He emptied two six-shooters into a cottonwood tree, and he nailed a horseshoe into the trunk of another cottonwood tree. Then he scratched out a contract on the side of a brass bucket to bound everyone to keep the secret. Although this doesn't seem in his character to do so, since the written oath could have been used as evidence against him, some folks believe the treasure exists.
The words on the bucket read: "This the 5th day of March, 1876, in the year of our Lord, 1876, we the undersigned do this day organize a bounty bank. We will go to the west side of the Keechi Hills which is about fifty yards from [symbol of crossed sabers]. Follow the trail line coming through the mountains just east of the lone hill where we buried the jack [burro]. His grave is east of a rock. This contract made and entered into this V day of March 1876. This gold shall belong to who signs below. Jesse James, Frank Miller, George Overton, Rub Busse, Charlie Jones, Cole Younger, Will Overton, Uncle George Payne, Frank James, Roy Baxter, Bud Dalton, and Zack Smith."
The gold hasn't been found, but the engraved brass bucket and simple map have been, as have the markers pointing to the treasure's hiding spot.
Calling himself a professional treasure hunter, W.C. Jameson is the author of nearly 20 treasure tomes that share tales of buried treasure all over the American West and beyond.


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The Dumbest Downgrade I've Ever Seen
The following video is part of our "Motley Fool Conversations" series, in which Motley Fool senior technology analyst Eric Bleeker and chief technology officer Jeremy Phillips discuss emerging trends in technology.
If you're looking for other stock ideas, look no further than The Motley Fool's new free report "The Hottest IPO of 2011." The free report lists one recent IPO set to take off thanks to its leadership in booming Latin American markets. To get instant access to the report, just click here now.
At the time thisarticle was published Neither Eric Bleeker nor Jeremy Phillips owns shares of any companies listed above. You canfollow Eric on Twitterto see all of his technology and market commentary. The Motley Fool owns shares of Google. Motley Fool newsletter services have recommended buying shares of Google. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
Copyright © 1995 - 2011 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.


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Rhinestones are everywhere and they are here to stay. Rhinestones are the finest, most luminescent, sparkle you can get your hands on… other than diamonds, emeralds, rubies, and sapphires. Who wouldn't want to feel like they're wearing a thousand carats of precious gems for a fraction of the price?
Crystal rhinestones let you add glitz, glamour and pizzazz to every inch of your life. Rhinestone flip flops are hot and a summer season staple. Be economical and make them yourself - they're easy as pie! One rhinestone buckle makes an impact but add dozens of rhinestones to makes a splash!
Celebrities and designers are using rhinestones to stand out from the crowd. Add a rhinestone here or there or make a bang by covering entire surfaces. Rhinestones are on cell phones, ipods, laptops, handbags, and headbands. Rhinestone broaches are used to make any outfit more fashionable and fun. Hotfix Rhinestones are even used in eclectic fashion forward quilts- these are not the quilts your grandma made! If it's a solid surface, then rhinestones have been put on it or you may be the first to create the idea. The possibilities are endless.
Babies are rocking rhinestones on the bottoms of their soles to the tops of their shoes. They are even putting rhinestones on designer pacifiers and rattles. Pettiskirts and tutus shine with the twinkle of rhinestones. Every little girl wants to feel like a princess and that's what rhinestones do!
When you look at a rhinestone it evokes a feeling or an emotion. With over 150 colors in stock at the Rhinestone Shop, your creativity can go wild! Grrrr! Take a boring shirt or an old pair of jeans and make them new with rhinestones. Figure skaters and dancers have been using rhinestones for years because they are the best at lighting up the judges eyes. Don't be fooled by cheap imitation glass stones that are lack luster. If you want the best, and who doesn't, then rhinestones are what you want and the Rhinestone Shop has the biggest and best selection you'll ever lay eyes on!


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Lake Logan dredging could reduce flood danger
Removing sediment from Lake Logan would not only benefit its owner, Evergreen Packaging, it could potentially save homes and businesses from flooding, according to a study that was recently completed by McGill Associates.
"If we're successful, we could lower the lake level, hold the floodwaters, and decrease impact," said Joel Storrow, president of McGill Associates.
Evergreen Packaging primarily uses the lake to maintain the water flow necessary for its paper mill operations. Lowering the lake level would increase water storage capacity for Evergreen, while simultaneously holding back floodwater that could potentially damage properties located downstream. Increasing the lake's capacity would therefore remove properties from the floodplain.
Just how many properties would be saved by dredging Lake Logan is dependent on how much sediment is removed. Lowering the lake by 10 feet would remove 15 structures from the flood plain. Dredging 15 feet from the lake would save 23 structures, while lowering Lake Logan 20 feet would save 29 properties.
Evergreen says it is only comfortable with dropping the lake by 10 feet, however, due to fears that filling up a lake that's 15 or 20 feet deeper during a drought would prove challenging.
McGill has compiled preliminary cost estimates, which show it would take $1.8 million to draw down the lake by 15 feet; $6.8 million to drop the lake 15 feet; and $9.8 million to dredge 20 feet.
Related Items
Storrow said he plans to pursue funding from the Federal Emergency Management Association, which could potentially provide 75 percent of the cost.
However, the recession means FEMA, like many other agencies, has less funding to dole out in grants.
"This is a very competitive program," said Storrow. "This isn't a slam dunk."
However, because McGill's study incorporated floodplain mapping from the state and the Army Corp of Engineers, it can back up its claims that dredging the lake would save homes, thereby making its application more competitive.
The study was commissioned after the devastating 2004 floods with state and federal aid funds. The Town of Canton received enough aid to fund 50 percent of the study, while Haywood County and Evergreen provided 25 percent each.


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Text by Candace Kanes
Images from Maine Historical Society, Aroostook County Historical and Art Museum, Bar Harbor Fire Department, Oakfield Historical Society, Presque Isle Fire Department, Presque Isle Historical Society, Southern Aroostook Agricultural Museum, and Stockholm Historical Society
Letter carriers with bags and trucks bulging with holiday cards and gifts, decorated trees and wreaths, and collections of toys, clothing, food and other gifts for the needy are only a few of the prevalent signs of the Christmas season, signs that are tangential to the religious meanings of the Christian holiday.
Also prominent is the profusion of lights -- on homes, on utility poles, on trees, on public buildings, and shining through windows from inside many structures.
The lights are associated both with Christmas and Hanukkah, a Jewish holiday also known as the "Festival of Lights," which commemorates the rededication of the holy Temple in Jerusalem in 165 B.C.E. The Maccabees wanted to light the menorah, but only had enough oil to last for one day. However, the oil lasted for eight days. In observance of that miracle, Jews light the menorah for eight days.
But the lights also mark the Solstice, the longest night and shortest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere and, hence, a time for adding light and observing the "return" of the light as days lengthen and the night shortens.
Friendly URL: https://www.mainememory.net/exhibits/publicfaceofchristmas


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News & Events
Houston Mayor declared December 11, 2012 "Houston History Day"
Honor recognizes Houston History magazine's ten years of publication
The Mayor Declared December 11, 2012 : "Houston History Day" in recognition of the magazine's ten years of publication, emphasizing the important role it has played in presenting original research on Houston's past and the undertold stories of the city's diverse communities.
Pictured left to right: Council Member Gonzalez, UH Alumni Assoc. President Mike Pede, Mayor Annise Parker, Managing Editor Debbie Harwell, Associate Editor Aimee Bachari, CPH Program Coordinator Wyndham Bailey, Social Networking Coordinator Ann Lynd, and Oral History Director Natalie Garza.
The mayor and the council members all received a copy of the latest issue of Houston History, "UH Celebrates 85 Years: The Road to Tier One."


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A corsage that bites
The orchid mantis uses a flowery subterfuge to lure prey
By Susan Milius
Orchid mantises have evolved into a fake flower that out-flowers the real thing. The insects don't seem to be mimicking any real flower found so far, but have invented something even fancier.
Among the many oddly shaped mantises of the world, only the petal-legged, corsage-worthy orchid mantis (Hymenopus coronatus) comes close to counterfeiting a whole blossom, says James O'Hanlon of Macquarie University in Sydney.
Which can be a nuisance. Searching rainforests for orchid mantises to study is "very frustrating," O'Hanlon says. "Every time you see a flower you go nuts thinking you've found one, and then it's just a flower."
This resemblance led Alfred Russel Wallace, the largely forgotten also-ran of evolutionary theory, to propose that the phony flowers lure a pollinator close enough to grab in an eye-blink strike. (They can rip apart a butterfly thrice their size.)
O'Hanlon was shocked to discover, though, that this oft-mentioned idea had never been tested. He and his colleagues began scouring Malaysian rainforests for wild orchid mantises.
"As far as we can tell, they're fantastically rare," O'Hanlon says. People living in the rainforest brought some to the researchers, he says, but "it took over a month to find one myself."
That fits with theory, which suggests deceitful mimics should be rare or else their victims would catch on. Other
evidence also fits Wallace's idea, O'Hanlon and his colleagues report in the January 2014 American Naturalist.
Orchid mantises' colors fall within the range of 13 local flower species, according to computer models that simulate what colors bees actually see. And when researchers set orchid mantises out in the forest, local bees, flies and butterflies flew fatally close. The mantises, in fact, attracted more pollinators than real flowers did.
O'Hanlon has yet to find a flower that the mantis looks very much like. Yet it fooled Australian journalist James Hingsley so thoroughly in 1879 that he reported it as a real orchid "that catches and feeds upon live flies."
LYING LIKE AN ORCHID An orchid mantis (top) catches insects that come too close, tricked by the insect's flowerlike appearance. Close-up views of another orchid mantis (bottom) show it feeding on prey.
Credit: Left: J. O'Hanlon; Right: Precarious333/Youtube


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LIVERMORE, Calif. – Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory researchers have captured time-series snapshots of a solid as it evolves on the ultra-fast timescale.
Using femtosecond X-ray free electron laser (FEL) pulses, the team, led by Anton Barty, is able to observe condensed phase dynamics such as crack formation, phase separation, rapid fluctuations in the liquid state or in biologically relevant environments. Other Livermore scientists include Michael Bogan, Stafan Hau-Riege, Stefano Marchesini, Matthias Frank, Bruce Woods, former Livermore researcher Saša Bajt and former LLNL scientist Henry Chapman, who is now at the Centre for Free Electron Laser Science, DESY, in Hamburg, Germany.
"The ability to take images in a single shot is the key to studying non-repetitive behavior mechanisms in a sample," Barty said.
As the femtosecond laser blasts the sample, it is destroyed, but not before the scientists created images with a 50-nanometer spatial resolution, and a 10-femtosecond shutter speed. (A femtosecond is one billionth of one millionth of a second. For context, a femtosecond is to a second as a second is to about 32 million years.)
"This experiment opens the door to a new regime of time-resolved experiments in mesoscopic dynamics," Barty said. "This technique could be extended to a few nanometers spatial and a few tens of femtoseconds temporal resolution."
This is the first time that optical pulses have been used to image samples at the nanometer-spatial resolution scale. Earlier studies were limited to a few micrometers.
The "shutter speed" of the measurements is determined by the femtosecond duration of the FEL X-ray pulse. This allowed the team to obtain nanometer spatial resolution of violent and destructive events in which the sample is completely destroyed.
The new technique is necessary to study ultrafast dynamics of non crystalline materials at nanometer-length scales. This includes fracture dynamics, shock formation, spallation, ablation and plasma formation under extreme conditions. The technique also allows researchers to image dynamic process in the solid state such as nucleation and phase growth, phase fluctuations and various forms of electronic or magnetic segregation.
The research appears in the June 22 online edition of Nature Photonics.
Founded in 1952, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is a national security laboratory, with a mission to ensure national security and apply science and technology to the important issues of our time. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is managed by Lawrence Livermore National Security, LLC for the U.S. Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration.


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"Time may be a great healer, but it's a lousy beautician." — Lucille S. Harper
The formulation of antiaging products presupposes an understanding of aging itself, a subject given a thought provoking spin in F. Scott Fitzgerald's short story The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, recently made into a major motion picture. Putting the aging clock in reverse is the ultimate goal of cosmeceuticals, but there are many mysteries of aging yet to be unlocked. All we know with certainty is that there are two primary types of aging: intrinsic and extrinsic.
Sometimes sophisticated instrumentation is needed to test skin properties, but not in the case of intrinsic versus extrinsic aging. Compare skin that is, for the most part, always covered to skin that is always exposed. The two areas are the same chronological age; the evident difference is the result of extrinsic aging.
Contrast that to intrinsic aging.
Martin Rieger wrote a comprehensive article on the subject in 1995.1 There are simple and well-established rules to minimize intrinsic aging—avoid sun and smoking, for example— and functional products usually contain UV protection, antioxidants and free radical scavengers that provide a common-sense first line of defense.
Aging at the Cellular Level
Sophisticated cosmetics try to turn back the clock, but what exactly is the clock and how far back can it be turned? It is clear that an 80-year-old woman, regardless of her health and beauty regimen, cannot look like a 16-year-old girl. The October 2008 issue of Scientific American2 contained an article titled, "Rethinking the Wrinkling: Key genes, rather than cell and DNA damage, as causes of aging," summarizing work published in Cell, a journal of research in molecular biology, biochemistry and cell biology, on nematode worms—commonly used in the genetic study of aging. The lifetime of worms can be extended by gene manipulation, and there are analogous mechanisms present in humans. The Cell paper3 referred to in Scientific American reports on the influence of ELT-3, ELT-5 and ELT-6 on GATA transcription circuits, which have been shown to be responsible for age-regulation, and so to the intrinsic aging of the nematode worm.
Cell culture research into the behavior of the human sirtuin SIRT1, an enzyme that deacetylates proteins that contribute to cellular regulation, shows that it behaves much like yeast sirtuin Sir2 (SIRT2), which assists in the repair of DNA and regulates genes connected with aging. The effects of aging may be partly due to SIRT2 being increasingly diverted to repair DNA damage.
CBS television's 60 Minutes also touched on the sirtuin gene in a segment titled "Fountain Of Youth In A Wine Rx?" that originally aired on Jan. 25, 2009. Researchers featured in the segment hypothesized that, when active, the sirtuin gene triggers a survival mechanism that extends life. Their search for natural compounds that trigger sirtuin led them to resveratrol, which is found in relatively large amounts in red wine. Cosmetic applications were coming into the fore in 2008,5, 6 and products have been entering the market. Among the higher-profile offerings, Avon offered Anew Ultimate, powered by pro-sirtuin TX, while Estée Lauder marketed Re-Nutriv Ultimate Youth Creme with SIRT1.
On the supplier side, several ingredients in addition to resveratrol are positioned for sirtuin activity. The research being done with sirtuins does not involve applying SIRT1 in a cream—the molecules are too large to penetrate the skin and in any case would likely be rejected by the body. The current approach involves finding compounds, primarily peptides, that promote activity of the body's own sirtuin. Christian Dior Capture Totale Multi-Perfection Cream utilizes the pro-sirtuin activity of Kluyveromyces yeast biopeptide. In more romantic terms, it uses Longoza—a rare plant grown only in Madagascar.
Chemicals can also inhibit sirtuin production, as has been shown for dihydroxycoumarin.6 But that's not good, and the implication for cosmetic formulations is profound. If some materials can activate sirtuin and others can deactivate it, it would be necessary to know the potential activity of every ingredient. In fact, materials that specifically target sirtuin are fairly rare—that's why resveratrol is so special. But moving forward, expansion of the database of these materials is clearly imperative.
Outpacing Science Fiction
If the likelihood of finding real age-defying ingredients seems far-fetched, consider the advancements that would have been relegated to the realm of science fiction not too long ago. One finds that real science is outpacing science fiction at an accelerated rate. For example, if amblyopia ("lazy eye") is left untreated past a critical stage it becomes untreatable because the critical brain wiring becomes fixed. Recent neuroscience research in rats, however, showed the possibility of turning the brain back into a plastic state, where rewiring can be done. In essence, an old brain could be made like a young brain for treatment of conditions such as amblyopia.
In the field of skin care, it seems like only yesterday that DNA repair enzymes and rousing stem cells in the basal epidermal membrane were cutting-edge. Now the mysteries of aging are being peeled away daily in laboratories around the world, with the results disclosed instantly on the Web. In a world where miracles become realities at the genetic scale, the future potential for antiaging products is mind-boggling.
- M Rieger, Intrinsic Aging, Cosm&Toil, 100 94–101 (1995)
- M Wenner, Rethinking the Wrinkling: Key genes, rather than cell and DNA damage, as causes of aging, Sci Am (Oct 2008)
- Budovskaya et al., An elt-3/elt-5/elt-6 GATA Circuit Guides Aging in C. Eegans, Cell (2008) Doi:10.10.1016/j.cell.2008.05.044.
- B Brewster, Stimulating Sirtuins Antiaging Appeal, Cosm&Toil 123 22–29 (2008)
- I Imbert et al., Sirtuins: A Breakthrough in Antiaging Research, Cosm&Toil 123 69–74 (2008)
- AJ Olaharski, J Rine, BL Marshall, J Babiarz, L Zhang, et al., The Flavoring Agent Dihydrocoumarin Reverses Epigenetic Silencing and Inhibits Sirtuin Deacetylases, PLoS Genet 1(6):e77 (2005)
Steve Herman is president of Diffusion LLC, a consulting company specializing in regulatory issues, intellectual property, and technology development and transfer. An adjunct professor in the Fairleigh Dickinson University Masters in Cosmetic Science program, his book, Fragrance Applications: A Survival Guide, was published by Allured Publishing Corp. in 2001. A former chairman of the SCC's New York chapter, he was elected to fellow status in 2002.


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You can't go a day without hearing someone talk about a new diet or new superfood. With so much information, it can be confusing. But, food and nutrition shouldn't be rocket science. It's actually simple; eat whole foods and listen to your body.
More: Calculate your Nutritional Needs.
I'm not perfect. I've struggled with finding a balance in my diet. But as a runner and food lover, I've discovered a few things that have worked for me and would like to share my experiences with you.
1) Eat What You Want
If you're craving a burger, go ahead and eat it. Well it's not that simple.
If you decided to eat a burger, opt for a healthier option. Why not make your burger at home instead of going to a fast food restaurant. Use turkey meat instead of ground beef. Choosing a healthier variation is generally a good rule of thumb.
More: Healthy Shopping List Tips for Busy Athletes
2) Eat When You Want
Just because your lunch break is at noon doesn't mean you must adhere to eating at that specific time. If you're hungry at 10:00 a.m., and your snack isn't going to cut it, then go ahead and eat your lunch. Will you use the excuse, "Oh but then I'll want dinner really early."? Not a problem. Eat dinner earlier. The 'food-time fairy' isn't going to punish you if you don't eat at exactly 7:00 p.m. The bottom line is to listen to your body and eat when you're hungry.
3) Portion Control
Portions aren't so easy to decipher. That half rack of ribs on your plate, with a side of mashed potatoes and saut?ed veggies isn't a single serving. But, you don't want to let it all go to waste, right? You don't have to let it go to waste. Ask for a to-go box. Eat half of your meal and save the rest for the next day.
More: The Diet Detective: How Many Calories Are You Eating?
4) Rewarding Yourself
Stop rewarding yourself with food. Runners tend to be an entitled bunch when it comes to food. They finish a run and reward themselves with food. Many times I hear this, "I ran 3 miles; surely I can eat this bucket of wings." Not so fast. Find a new reward. How about a foot massage? Eat to run, don't run to eat.
5) You are What You Eat
You've heard it before and you'll hear it again. You are what you eat. Personally, I don't find food to be all that attractive (A bell pepper just doesn't look sexy to me), but that's not the point. This phrase makes more sense if it said, "If you want a simple life, eat simple foods. For a complicated life, choose foods with ingredients you cannot pronounce." It's totally your choice. I prefer the simple life, free from complications. Besides, I feel better when things are simple.
More: Healthy Snack: Baked Kale Chips
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9 Harvard dropouts who became fabulously successful
These dropouts went on to exceptional careers in film, poetry, music, and more
Most people are familiar with the stories of Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg, who achieved great success as the founders of Microsoft and Facebook, respectively, after dropping out of Harvard. Here are nine other former Harvard students who made out just fine without earning their degrees.
Frost, a San Francisco native who had previously dropped out of Dartmouth after only two months, was accepted for admission at Harvard in the fall of 1897 and studied liberal arts in Cambridge. Two years later, Frost, who had married and become a father just prior to enrolling at Harvard, left school to support his growing family. "They could not make a student of me here, but they gave it their best," Frost later said. Frost won four Pulitzer Prizes for poetry in his lifetime and received an honorary degree from Harvard in 1937.
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The future Hollywood star entered Harvard in 1988 and took time off during the second semester of his sophomore year to act in Rising Son, a made-for-TV movie. Damon stepped out during his junior and senior years as well, and never accrued enough credits to graduate. "What was happening is that I would keep coming back, and I would almost get done with the semester and then I would be yanked out," Damon recalled in an interview with the Harvard Crimson. It's fitting, then, that Damon's big break was Good Will Hunting, the 1997 film he co-wrote and starred in with his friend Ben Affleck. In one scene, Damon's character tells a Harvard student, "You drop $150,000 on an education that you could have gotten for $1.50 on late charges at the public library." Damon said on Ellen that he doesn't have any plans to go back and finish his degree. "I feel like I got everything I needed to get from that experience," he said.
(More from Mental Floss: 12 of the most distracting extras in movie history)
Hearst, the son of millionaire mining engineer George Hearst, enrolled at Harvard in 1885 and acted as the first business manager of the Harvard Lampoon, the school's humor publication. It didn't take long for Hearst, who kept a pet alligator named Champagne Charlie in his room, to establish a reputation as a trouble-maker. According to legend, the future newspaper magnate once bought a jackass and snuck the animal into a professor's room, leaving a card around its neck with the note, "Now there are two of you." Hearst survived that stunt, but was later expelled for sending his professors chamber pots with their names inscribed on the bottom. After leaving Harvard, Hearst launched his successful career by taking control of one of his father's newspapers, the San Francisco Examiner.
After graduating with honors from the Norwich Academy in Connecticut, Land enrolled at Harvard in 1926. The son of a scrap metal yard owner, Land studied chemistry as a freshman and launched experiments on ways to polarize light. Land dropped out of Harvard to focus full-time on his research, which he conducted at the New York Public Library, before returning to Cambridge to establish the Land-Wheelwright Laboratories with his former Harvard physics instructor in 1932. In 1937, Land co-founded the Polaroid Corporation, which would introduce the first instant camera in 1947. Land said the idea was inspired by his then-3-year-old daughter, who asked why she couldn't immediately see a photograph he took of her on a family vacation. Polaroid made another breakthrough in 1963 with the introduction of instant color photography. By the time of his death in 1991, Land, who was awarded an honorary doctorate degree in 1957 and had a street in Cambridge named after him, owned more than 500 patents, second only to Thomas Edison. Among his other inventions were instant X-rays, Polaroid sunglasses, and glare-reducing goggles for dogs.
Connolly, who was admitted to Harvard in 1895 despite never graduating high school, left Cambridge to participate in the first Olympic Games one year later. Connolly reportedly requested a leave of absence from the Harvard dean, but it was denied as a result of his low academic standing. Harvard informed Connolly that he would have to reapply for admission upon his return from Athens, but he left anyway, and became the first modern Olympic champion with a win in the triple jump. Connolly never returned to Harvard to finish his degree, but he was awarded an honorary Harvard sweater in 1948.
(More from Mental Floss: 11 controversies caused by cartoons)
As Seeger explains it, the folk singer and activist had his financial aid rescinded after his sophomore year because he got too interested in left-wing politics and let his grades slip. Seeger, who would've graduated in 1940, achieved fame after dropping out of Harvard as a member of The Weavers, whose rendition of Leadbelly's "Goodnight, Irene" topped the charts for 13 weeks in 1950. Seeger doesn't seem to harbor any ill will toward the school. As the Harvard Crimson reported, he wrote the following in his alumni yearbook: "I remember thinking when 1940 came along that I was glad I had spent the two years there, that I had learned certain invaluable things, but also that I had learned in two years that I had been away from certain things that Harvard wouldn't have been able to teach."
The inventor, philosopher, and futurist was the fifth generation of his family to enroll at Harvard and the first not to graduate. Fuller wasn't accepted into any of Harvard's social clubs, so he sought companionship elsewhere and regularly skipped classes to attend Broadway shows. During one such trip to New York City, Fuller treated actress Marilyn Miller and her entire chorus to dinner, blowing all of his tuition money for that year in the process. Harvard dismissed Fuller, who went to work as a factory worker in Quebec before his mother convinced him to reapply. Fuller was readmitted and earned several academic honors, but eventually became bored and left Harvard for good. After a stint in the U.S. Navy, Fuller embarked on the first of many commercial failures, including the prefabricated Dymaxion House, before achieving fortune and fame in 1947 with the invention of the geodesic dome. Fuller returned to Harvard in 1961 to accept the Charles Eliot Norton Professorship of Poetry.
Raitt enrolled at Radcliffe College, Harvard's then-coordinate college, in 1967. The daughter of a Broadway musical performer, Raitt planned to major in African studies and travel to Tanzania to help "undo the damage that Western colonialism had done." Those dreams were sidetracked when Raitt, a skilled guitar player, met blues promoter Dick Waterman in Cambridge. Waterman introduced Raitt to established performers such as Son House and Fred McDowell. Though Raitt had every intention of graduating, she took a semester off during her sophomore year to explore the possibility of a musical career with Waterman and became a star. Raitt signed a recording deal with Warner Bros. in 1970 and released her debut album in 1971. Raitt won four Grammy awards in 1990 and received Harvard's third Arts Medal in 1997. She was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2000.
(More from Mental Floss: The greatest dance number ever filmed)
At least one famous Harvard dropout eventually decided to return to school. Shue, who transferred to Harvard from Wellesley College, dropped out of school one semester short of receiving her political science degree in 1985 to pursue an acting career. Fifteen years later, she returned to Cambridge to complete her degree. "My brain was starting to dry up," Shue told Movieline magazine. "In Hollywood, you're fortunate if you get a role where your brain is engaged, but those experiences are rare. I felt like I needed to do something with my life. I wanted to feel more connected to the world." At the time, Shue said she would eventually like to teach and make documentaries.
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Share A Cup of clé Holiday Cheer
by clé tile | published: Dec 7, 2020
It is that time of year: the season for giving, and we are feeling the spirit. The latest clé giveaway is here, and it's a special one.
If you have used clé in a recent project, we would love to see. Post a photo of your best clé tile installation on Instagram using #mycletile. You could win one of two sets of three handmade cups from the clé guild. Contest details are below.
Dogwood (large), Fennel (medium) and Mallow (small) Salvia (large), Willow (medium) and Bracken (small)
The cup sets are one-of-a-kind and are handmade by our Guild ceramicist Eric VanderMolen replicating the glazes created for our New California collection of thin brick. See here for more about Eric and the Guild.
Contest details: The submission period for this contest is from Monday, December 7 through Friday, December 11 at midnight PST. All submissions should be in Instagram posts and not stories or reels. Submissions via stories or reels will not be entered to win. Winners will be chosen at random and notified via DM by Wednesday, December 16. By submitting your photo, you permit clé to share it on clé's social media channels, where it will be tagged with the owner's handle. This contest is not endorsed by Instagram.


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The great recession has left the state of Ohio battered and bruised–and Mitt Romney would have you believe it's Barack Obama's fault. Writing in the Cleveland Plain-Dealer on May 4, Romney advised Ohioans that the President has delivered them "paltry results," and that their state is in need of "a fundamental change in direction."
But just three days earlier, the state's Republican governor, John Kasich, was telling a different story. "I'm very comfortable with the [economic] trend we have in our state," Kasich said. "Our unemployment has dropped I think more than most other states." (He thinks right.) "We're [moving] in the right direction," Kasich said.
Obama would have you believe Kasich's version of events. The President's campaign argues that the economy, while still troubled, is clearly and steadily improving. Obama's election may depend on whether he can successfully make that sale. And he has gained some unlikely support: Republican governors in critical swing states like Ohio.
(PHOTOS: On the Trail with Mitt Romney)
For Obama, it's particularly helpful that the economy is brightening fastest in some of the most important battleground states that will determine this fall's election. Consider three states that were the subject of new poll data released by NBC and Marist late last week: Ohio, Florida, and Virginia. Barack Obama leads Romney in all three. (By 48%-44% in both Florida and Virginia and by 48%-42% in Ohio.) In each state, Obama's margin is wider than it is in the country as a whole, as measured in two different national polling averages which show him a less than two percent edge.
It's impossible to pinpoint why Obama might be performing better in these states. But one reason might be the help he's getting from their local economies–and the governors, all of them Republican, with an incentive to tell an economic story closer to Obama's than to Romney's.
Romney's message, of course, is that the economy still stinks, and that the recent job growth Obama brags about is nothing to celebrate. When the last round of so-so jobs numbers arrived on May 4, Romney pronounced them "terrible" and "very disappointing." "We seem to be slowing down, not speeding up," he said. "This is way, way, way off from what should happen in a normal recovery."
(MORE: Why the Obama Campaign Is So Confident About Beating Romney)
But Kasich and his counterparts in Florida and Virginia are singing a different tune–and not without reason. At 7.4%, Ohio's unemployment rate is more about a half-point better than the national average of 8.1 percent; more importantly, it's improving about twice as fast as the national number. Virginia has a relatively stellar 5.6 percent rate; that's better than Romney's target for the nation at the end of his first term. With an 8.7 percent jobless rate Florida is definitely still hurting. But it's come a long way from its crisis-level 11.2 percent rate of just a year ago. Like Ohio's, Florida's unemployment rate is falling twice as rapidly as the nation's.
And guess who's first in line to brag about these results, party loyalty be damned? "We're alive again!" Kasich said in his January State of the State address. "We're out of the ditch. We're growing. It's happening in our state." In Virginia, meanwhile, governor Bob McDonnell's political action committee released a new ad last month "celebrat[ing] Virginia's economic recovery," as his website explains. The site also boasts that the state's unemployment rate "has plunged 23% since January 2010." In Florida, governor Rick Scott bragged earlier this month, after a miniscule 0.3 percent uptick in his state's unemployment rate, that "Florida's jobless rate moved to its lowest point in more than three years and is a clear sign we are moving Florida in a direction that gives businesses and job creators the confidence they need to grow and expand."
It's safe to say that Eric Fehrnstrom isn't writing the talking points for these governors. But while all of them support Romney, they also have their own political self-preservation in mind. And they know that it's not just the President whom voters will blame for a rotten economy.
(MORE: America's Slow Economic Recovery)
This quirky dynamic extends through several other battleground states. Nevada's Republican governor says his bloodied state is "on the move again." In Michigan, where unemployment has plummeted from more than 14 percent in 2009 to 8.3 percent, Republican Governor Rick Snyder declares that "much has been done," adding: "the key is to keep this going." And Wisconsin's Republican Governor, Scott Walker may survive a June 5 recall vote after relentless boasting about the state's slightly sunnier economic performance. (In a bit of turnabout, Democrats are complaining that the Republican is exaggerates the good news.)
Not that these governors are affording Obama any credit. They say their states could be doing even better under a Republican President. But the more they feel compelled, for reasons of political self-interest, to echo the White House's tale of economic progress, the less likely they are to get one.


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I have started decorating for Christmas and I almost forgot to put this pillow out. I made it this past summer and it's been sitting on the top shelf of my closet ever since and almost missed it's début. I made it from a stencil that I ordered from my favorite stencil source, Maison de Stencils. I made a quick cover for an old pillow that I had out of some painter's cloth. You can check out one of my past posts called Stenciled French Pillow to see how I did it. Then it was just a matter of stenciling the image on to the pillow cover. I am really happy with it!
And earlier today I found a great tree skirt at TJ Maxx for the snowflake tree I am working on in the sunroom. You've got to love the dollar store for those giant snowflakes. I am almost done with that tree. I am working on three trees this year. Yes, three and it's about to kill me! And it's only because I am hosting part of the progressive dinner for the annual "Tour of Trees" party. I have until December 9th to get them done. Otherwise, I would have left half of the decorations boxes in the attic! I'll be back soon with more Christmas tree photos as I get them done. Have you started decorating yet???